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Valentine’s Day 2024 is not far off, and many are already thinking of ways they can best express their affection for those they love.
Whether your beloved is a spouse, significant other, friend, or family member, there is probably a Hallmark card out there with their name on it, just waiting to be bought, signed, sealed with a kiss, and delivered to them.
And it might even accompany flowers, chocolate, jewelry, lingerie, an expensive candlelit dinner, or even a weekend getaway for two.
According to surveys over the last few years, it seems that a little over half of Americans celebrate Valentine’s Day.
The fact that over 40 percent of the U.S. population probably won’t be celebrating Valentine’s Day this year is a bit surprising to me.
Maybe those who choose not to acknowledge this day are just indifferent to the celebration of love.
Or maybe they just downright abhor it.
Maybe, somewhere along the way, the idea of “love” left a bad taste in their mouth through dashed expectations. (You know, if you don’t expect anything, then you won’t be disappointed.)
Maybe it’s because, in the minds of some, Valentine’s Day seems to segregate people into two distinct groups: “those who are loved” and “those who are not.”
Subconsciously, this mindset may go even deeper: “those who are worth loving” and “those who are not worth loving.”
In Father God’s economy, the second group doesn’t even exist.
Everyone (no exceptions) is worth loving.
“God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son so that anyone who believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16 TLB).
No human being on the face of this earth is left out of Father God’s love.
Our existence alone qualifies us to be the object of His extravagant affection.
Since the beginning of time, what Father God has wanted more than anything is for you to understand and believe that:
The only way you can receive and enjoy His no-strings-attached love & life is to believe in (into) His Son, Jesus. This means that you realize that you are born into this world separated from His life and you ask Him to give you new life in His Son (which is completely provided for through His finished work on the cross): “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life” (Eph. 2:8-9; 1 John 5:11-12).
Once you are in Him, you are in Him for good! He is faithful forever. He will never leave you nor forsake you. No one will ever snatch you away from Him (John 10:28; 2 Tim. 2:13; Heb. 13:5).
You exist because He wanted you! He knit you together in your mother’s womb to be an eternal container and enjoyer of His no-strings-attached love & life (Ps. 139:13-14).
You are the love of His life, the object of His supreme affection! This means that He has hand-picked you to shower His love on you 24/7/365. But, if you don’t ever realize this and consciously receive and enjoy it, His love won’t do you (or anyone who knows you) any good.
If you are an unbeliever, what God wants most this Valentine’s Day is you!
He wants you to believe in (into) His Son so that you can be included in His eternal family.
If you are already a believer in His Son, what God wants most this Valentine’s Day (and every day of the rest of your life on this earth) is for you to acknowledge and enjoy His no-strings-attached love for you.
How can we authentically love others without first savoring God’s love for ourselves?
Do you know Christians who are burnt out—those who are so worn out from trying to work for God—all the while containing the eternal, refreshing wellspring of life within them (John 7:38; Matt. 11:28-30)?
Are you one of those Christians?
If you are, then I’ve got some supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (extraordinarily good; wonderful) news for you!
But it will only benefit you if you believe and act on it.
God didn’t create you and join you to the eternal life of His Son so that you could go to work for Him (Acts 17:25-28).
He created you for the sheer purpose of letting Him love you!
He knows better than anyone (He’s all-knowing) that faith works through love, that we can’t give what we haven’t first received, and that His love & life welling up within us will overflow onto everyone we come into contact with (1 John 3:18; 4:7-8, 19).
I think this is where most Christians get it wrong.
We “try” to love others (because that is Christ’s royal law) unconditionally without first “letting” Him love us for free (Mark 12:28-31).
Yeah, we still operate under the faulty mindset that we can only receive and enjoy His love if we’ve earned or deserved it.
But if we are going to enjoy His no-strings-attached love for us and let it overflow our lives onto others, we are going to have to declare war on this deceptive way of thinking and living!
Imagine what would happen if Christians all over the world marked everything off their spiritual to do list and added only one item: Live loved.
It sounds really simple, but it wouldn’t be easy.
It would mean deleting the words earn and deserve from your vocabulary in your relationship with the King of Kings.
It would include a lot of unlearning, but it would also be the beginning of an adventure of a lifetime that would spill over into eternity!
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If you enjoyed this post, I invite you to check out all of my books and my video series based on my first devotional.
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